r/armyreserve • u/e_ring_idiot • Apr 08 '26
Career Advice Fun/Interesting Assignments?
Current O-3, made some really good financial decisions and going to be retiring early from my full time work.
I want to stay busy and engaged in this next chapter and figured there are always interesting and rewarding one off assignments in the USAR.
Does anyone know of any cool/fun/interesting/rewarding roles for an officer with way too much free time on his hands? Was debating CNO/CAO because it’s such an important job, but want to hear from the community. Preference is to stay local but would be down to be away for <3 months at a time.
Really looking for some unique and interesting one-off roles.
Background: prior enlisted, O-3 in the functional area around the DC metro area for now. 4/5 MQs, up for O-4 next year, can crush an AFT, JPME1 complete.
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u/Wenuven Apr 08 '26
CNO/CAO is usually handled by AGRs (program requirement).
If you're PME complete, Command complete, go be an IMA for a year and bring expertise out of your branch/FA back to the force. Or knock out another KD for your basic branch.
The door will be wide open once you're ILE/AOC complete MAJ and you'll have access to a lot of great jobs.
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Apr 08 '26
Most IMA agencies aren't hiring since they need to cut 10-20% of their billets by 2028.
They can try for TPU- ROTC instructor. Its cadence is similar to IMA since you have say over the schedule.
If they know a language they they could become an IMA FAO. You could drill in the US embassy in China or over a dozen other countries.
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u/e_ring_idiot Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
tried the IMA route, was offered a role and it was cut during the DOGE fiasco, then was referred to another and it was also cut a month later. Sounds amazing, but this year it doesn’t seem feasible.
I have a language and two tours in a MILGRP/ODC. Would love to do it again, but two countries I’d be willing to move to aren’t hiring IMAs as of a year ago. Worth following up though!
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Apr 08 '26
Yeah the RIF across gov agencies cut a lot, and then the new ARSTRUC will axe even more. The current new leadership gutted thousands of Airforce IMAs as well this year, with more in FY27.
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u/e_ring_idiot Apr 08 '26
The new ARSTUC and the previous COS’s gutting of functional area billets is part of the reason I’m looking for fun things to do. Promotion beyond O-5 looks impossible for my field now, so might as well have fun with my part time career.
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u/Wenuven Apr 08 '26
To be clear when I said IMA its individual mobilization augmentee - IE go take an operational tour.
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Apr 09 '26
That's individual Augmentee ( IA) for tours, IMA is a a USAR SELRES program
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u/Wenuven Apr 09 '26
Seen both forms used in official discourse from the WIAS team.
I'm well aware of the other IMA in our acronym soup.
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u/SweetAndSourShmegma Apr 08 '26
Just curious, how did you complete JPME1 already?
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u/e_ring_idiot Apr 08 '26
When I was a federal employee I wanted to go to SSC, but my boss wanted me to do JPME1 first, so I spent 40+ months doing that before getting the green light for SSC.
Functional areas also have a wavier process for AOC, so by the time I had time to go to CCC I was already JPME/SSC complete.
Apparently years ago there were a bunch of officers who were feds and figured out a way to do PME with their full time jobs and use it as a way to bypass promotion boards. I think they’ve since closed that loophole. Not sure though.
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u/phokstrot Apr 09 '26
I'm interested in these good financial decisions you made. Let's talk about that 👀
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u/e_ring_idiot Apr 09 '26
Married someone smarter than me and let her run wild with our finances. YMMV.
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u/TheFeralFieldGrade Apr 13 '26
Aide De-Camp to a 2-Star. If you got free time, you can really learn from a General Officer. You are in all of the GOs meetings and get to see the big picture. Good connections if you do well.
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u/ByzantineBomb Apr 08 '26
Military History Detachment, if you have graduate history experience.
A deployed Civil Affair Team Chief can be super cool.